Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/220

 kind of effort, and of course is more liable to vagueness of conception: it will however lead the mind on, if frequently repeated, so as shall impart still more intenseness and vivacity to the conceptions of things not seen.

Now it is only an extension of this same habit or power, which we propose to effect in relation to the celestial bodies: and this sort of training, if persevered in, imparts a general activity and energy to the mind, which will make itself manifest in every other intellectual operation; for there is absolutely no process of thought that does not ground itself, more or less remotely, upon the conceptive faculty.

The moon, a day or two short of the full, or as much past it, affords the best opportunity for this sort of exercise. The moon, let it be said, isa mountain, only some-what more distant from the earth than Snowdon is from the Cheviots, or than the Irish coast is from Cader Idris. The moon, seen in her gibbous state, through a good telescope, is readily perceived to be rotund, and the mind has grasped its object the moment when that which had been thought of as a disc, is seen to be a globe. The meridional, orange-like ridges of the moon’s surface aid the eye in this effort. Then, after a familiarizing lecture has been given, embracing all that is known, or well conjectured, concerning the physical condition, or geology of the moon, and drawings, in large, have been shown of its circular or volcanic pits, of its protruded chalky strata, so resplendent at certain points, and of its crescent ridges, the telescope is again resorted to, and the very objects are exhibited that have been spoken of, and represented. If the first beam of sunlight upon a lofty lunar crag is watched for, and the spreading of day adown the mountain side is seen until the cone join the plain whence it rises, the mind, thus aided to a certain extent, and then left to go on by itself, acquireswhat we are now intending, a vigorous mental ubiquitya